I know that I personally built more of them than any other audio amp EVER.....that includes Tubelab amps. The only one I didn't build was the Tigersaurus.
We had an audio club at the Motorola plant where I worked. We could sample all the silicon for free and make our own PC boards too.
I had the typical shag and velvet van in the 70's. It didn't have the typical stereo. I had a Nakamichi cassette deck driving a DIY preamp that fed EIGHT Plastic Tigers and one Universal Tiger for the sub.
I was populating boards a dozen at a time in the mid 70's! We used them for HiFi, guitar amps, and car audio.
I built the SWTPC 6800 computer too. That one was last seen in a museum at Virginia Tech.
There have been about 450 Tubelab SSE boards sold and at least 200completed amps. Probably a lot more. I personally built over 10, not counting test amps or test boards. There have been about 300 TSE boards sold, not sure of the total builds, but probably over 100. I personally built 10. SPP's don't sell, maybe 25 boards total sold. I have built 5.
I probably sold 700 F5 component kits, but got tired of doing all the fulfillment. Moreover, as more kits were sold the quality of the builders deteriorated. I have never blown out the front end of an F5, or any other JFET front end, but it seemed a matter of habit for those coming in at the end to destroy the JFETs or the output transistors.
I'm one of those 700. Amp still running without problems.
Attachments
Leaping out of the woodwork... Those Tigers had all sorts of issues for the unwary, but my scratch-built version is still going strong. IMO, that Dan Meyer was a pretty sharp dude back in his day. RIP Dan.
It would be really nice if we just compiled the basic measurements for various DIY amps, but it seems most of the people who DIY stuff aren't equipped to measure it.
Jacco went lyrical there, which was nice, but going back to the mundane world that was the chassis of a Musical Fidelity F15.
I have been building audio amps since the 1960's. During that time I have had many "favorites". That term will have a different meaning to different people, and to the same person at different times.
Right now my "favorite" happens to be a TI eval board for a class D amp, because it is tiny (I have zero work space) and sounds reasonably good as long as you keep the volume far away from clipping.
For the past 10 years it would have been my TSE with 45's and Electra Print OPT's. It sounds good through my inefficient Yamaha's and great through some Lowther horns.
In the 90's I would have said that the Carver/Phase Linear setup I had was the BOMB....because it was as loud as a bomb.....
I did like the Plastic Tigers and Universal Tigers back in the 70's.....after I figured out how to blow proof them.
Late 60's, early 70's, it was a pair of Stromberg Carlson mono tube PA amps. 4 X 6L6 each, and about 40 pounds each. Massive transformers and good sound, even though I had big powered solid state stuff like a Crown DC300A. The Crown made an awesome guitar amp, but not much of a stereo.
Why do we build endless number of amps if each time we finish one, we are satisfied and get what we expected? What gap do we expect to fill when we build another? Right now i listen to a hybrid amp everyday and can't imagine another amp would sound even better. Nevertheless, i'm on my path to build a 6C33 OTL amp. This could sound totally different from my hybrid but i have no doubt i will like the result. Perhaps it's this self-conditioning that keeps me going.
I guess it's not a matter of how one amp is better from the other.. It's a matter of scratching that build itch and finish it off with something that our ear would adapt and finally grow fond of. This "ear adaptation" for some would mean that i have finished the "burning period". Dislike the sound of that new class D amp you just bought? It must be the stock mains power cable. Replace with top-dollar-ultra-retro-vintage mains power cable, let it burn for 36.87 hours and.. voila it sounds much better!
So i guess a poll would not only be meaningless since it's totally subjective but also that any properly built amp would be enough for our ear to adapt and like.
I guess it's not a matter of how one amp is better from the other.. It's a matter of scratching that build itch and finish it off with something that our ear would adapt and finally grow fond of. This "ear adaptation" for some would mean that i have finished the "burning period". Dislike the sound of that new class D amp you just bought? It must be the stock mains power cable. Replace with top-dollar-ultra-retro-vintage mains power cable, let it burn for 36.87 hours and.. voila it sounds much better!
So i guess a poll would not only be meaningless since it's totally subjective but also that any properly built amp would be enough for our ear to adapt and like.
Because we can!
Sometimes it is the other way around. My amp designs begin as breadboards running off of lab power supplies. I listen to them for a while in mono while I tinker to see if any improvements can be made. Occasionally an amp sounds different enough to keep my attention for more than a week. Usually I get bored with it and the design gets shelved. Sometimes a week or two of listening will bring the "what was I thinking response." More than a few of these got a "death by power supply" sentence. I have a 650 volt 1.7 amp variable power supply that can erase all bad sound permanently.
If I am still interested after the "break in period" I will usually commit the design to a PCB and build a stereo pair. Sometimes a few pairs. At least one of these will become a breadboard or a test amp, usually two boards a power supply and some transformers mounted on a piece of plywood. If this keeps me interested for a while, I make a real chassis for it.
There was a large box (maybe 5 cu ft) in my closet that contained PC boards that I lost interest in. Some go back 20 years. Only about 1/3 of them were saved during my recent move.....so obviously some amps were started just because I could.....but never finished.
I had them connected up to my Tubelab SE running 45 tubes. I also used a powered sub for 120 Hz and below. 2 WPC didn't make a whole lot of sound but what it made was excellent.
After a 41 year career Motorola laid me off, so I packed up and left south Florida. We are in a temporary house until our new place is built. I plan to set up a music studio / listening room in the basement. They will be one of the speaker choices. The Yamaha NS-10M Studio speakers will also be used, and at least two more DIY speakers that go much further into the LOUD zone. It will be about a year before everything is built. In the mean time I am using a class D chip amp with the Yamahas.
After a 41 year career Motorola laid me off, so I packed up and left south Florida. We are in a temporary house until our new place is built. I plan to set up a music studio / listening room in the basement. They will be one of the speaker choices. The Yamaha NS-10M Studio speakers will also be used, and at least two more DIY speakers that go much further into the LOUD zone. It will be about a year before everything is built. In the mean time I am using a class D chip amp with the Yamahas.
EZ10 speakers?
Hi George,
I've built one of your TSE amps and recently done some maintenance on it to increase reliability (extra heatsinks). I'm using 45 tubes and I think it sounds awesome.
But why I'm posting: I saw that you had built and were testing a pair of the EZ10 BLHs, using the Audio Nirvana 10" drivers (about 3 years ago now!) How did they end up? Did you keep them?
I've just finished building a pair myself. Still working out the damping/stuffing material required. Just wondering what happened with your project?
Cheers,
Ben in Sydney
Hi George,
I've built one of your TSE amps and recently done some maintenance on it to increase reliability (extra heatsinks). I'm using 45 tubes and I think it sounds awesome.
But why I'm posting: I saw that you had built and were testing a pair of the EZ10 BLHs, using the Audio Nirvana 10" drivers (about 3 years ago now!) How did they end up? Did you keep them?
I've just finished building a pair myself. Still working out the damping/stuffing material required. Just wondering what happened with your project?
Cheers,
Ben in Sydney
Sadly, the EZ10's were sold. My wife was never thrilled with the plywood and sheetrock screw finish, nor their physical size. I however liked the sound, so I put casters on the bottom and rolled them out when she wasn't home. When it became time to pack up all my stuff and move it all 1200 miles on short notice, they didn't make the cut.
I glued up all the joints except one side panel on each cabinet. That way I could experiment with stuffing. I wound up with some indoor-outdoor carpeting (2 or 3 layers?) on the vertical panel right behind the driver, and some more down the back wall of the horn. This worked great when the amp was driven by my 125 WPC version of Pete Millett's Engineers Amp. I think a bit more stuffing would be needed for use with a zero feedback amp like the TSE. There was some kind of synergy between the EZ10's and the big P-P amp that just worked on loud dynamic music, and with that much power the volume control never got past 9 o'clock.
I must explain further that the Frugels were in my work room which was small, 10 X 10 feet with hard walls and zero absorption. They were flipped upside down on the shelf of my workbench due to limited space. This put the horn opening near the roof. The Yamahas were on either side of the Frugels, and some DIY loud boxes with 2 X 6 inch Dayton PA speakers were on top of the Yamahas. The powered sub was behind the computer monitor facing the corner of the room.
I had anywhere from 2 to 5 amps that could easily be patched into any speaker set, and any or all of them could be driven simultaneously from my computer, turntable, CD player, or Samson mixer for MI use with a simple line stage. The chip amp phono stage is inside the turntable.
This sounded good when I was siting in the chair facing the computer screen, but made for some funny room modes in the bass region in other parts of the room. The cheap steel studs INSIDE the sheetrock walls would start to rattle if I got close to loud, so the sub was aimed at an outside block wall.
The Yamahas and Frugels were used for listening to music, and the DIY loud boxes were for testing new designs and playing guitar or keyboards. They could eat serious power without damage and the drivers are $20 each, so there is little penalty if I blew one up. No failures yet and they do sound quite nice with a digital piano.
The EZ10's never sounded good in that little room. They did good in the living room which was 14 X 16 feet with absorptive material everywhere (fluffy couches thick drapes and carpeting). This may also affect speaker tuning since I didn't seem to need much stuffing to kill the bass boom.
The next Tubelab work room will be inside a large basement which I will finish out to my specs. There will be a 200 amp 240 volt service panel inside the room. I built tube amps in Florida that could blow the 15 amp breaker under full power......no more of that!
I glued up all the joints except one side panel on each cabinet. That way I could experiment with stuffing. I wound up with some indoor-outdoor carpeting (2 or 3 layers?) on the vertical panel right behind the driver, and some more down the back wall of the horn. This worked great when the amp was driven by my 125 WPC version of Pete Millett's Engineers Amp. I think a bit more stuffing would be needed for use with a zero feedback amp like the TSE. There was some kind of synergy between the EZ10's and the big P-P amp that just worked on loud dynamic music, and with that much power the volume control never got past 9 o'clock.
I must explain further that the Frugels were in my work room which was small, 10 X 10 feet with hard walls and zero absorption. They were flipped upside down on the shelf of my workbench due to limited space. This put the horn opening near the roof. The Yamahas were on either side of the Frugels, and some DIY loud boxes with 2 X 6 inch Dayton PA speakers were on top of the Yamahas. The powered sub was behind the computer monitor facing the corner of the room.
I had anywhere from 2 to 5 amps that could easily be patched into any speaker set, and any or all of them could be driven simultaneously from my computer, turntable, CD player, or Samson mixer for MI use with a simple line stage. The chip amp phono stage is inside the turntable.
This sounded good when I was siting in the chair facing the computer screen, but made for some funny room modes in the bass region in other parts of the room. The cheap steel studs INSIDE the sheetrock walls would start to rattle if I got close to loud, so the sub was aimed at an outside block wall.
The Yamahas and Frugels were used for listening to music, and the DIY loud boxes were for testing new designs and playing guitar or keyboards. They could eat serious power without damage and the drivers are $20 each, so there is little penalty if I blew one up. No failures yet and they do sound quite nice with a digital piano.
The EZ10's never sounded good in that little room. They did good in the living room which was 14 X 16 feet with absorptive material everywhere (fluffy couches thick drapes and carpeting). This may also affect speaker tuning since I didn't seem to need much stuffing to kill the bass boom.
The next Tubelab work room will be inside a large basement which I will finish out to my specs. There will be a 200 amp 240 volt service panel inside the room. I built tube amps in Florida that could blow the 15 amp breaker under full power......no more of that!
Thanks for the reply, George. That's sad news indeed.
Yes, I was wondering if that was going to be the finished 'finish'. I'm painting mine now in two-tone stain and Japan black. It's a painful job. Should have just gone with good old matt black!
Yeah. Thanks for the tip! We went ahead and glued & nailed the whole darned thing together all at once. No stuffing! So that's going to be an interesting job, with only the speaker hole and the 'horn' as entry points
I also have Pete's Engineer Amp in progress.....but sticking to his 20Wpc design for now.
Sorry for hijacking the thread and thanks all for indulging me....back under my rock now, till I post some project photos.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.